John Ward On A Point At Swindon

Last updated : 16 March 2008 By Thetashkentterror

John Ward
United boss John Ward spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Derek Lacey on Saturday evening as he talked about the see-saw 2-2 draw at Swindon, Ward suggesting that the Robins had played very well in the game :


" We've had to pick up the pace of the game because I wasn't sure where we were going to find a goal, or win the game, or get anything from it. Because to a man the players have said well done to Keiren (Westwood) as we came in at half-time. The demand was that that shouldn't happen at the end of the game and that we were hanging in there. At times we had to hang in there though and we had to be strong, at a goal up we were still under pressure and had to work very hard against a side that played very well.

" It would be quite easy to me to label my side as not having played very well today but the opposition did. I think that they when they do that you have to work very hard to stay with them as Luton did in the second-half on Tuesday night. We've done that throughout the game today and found two goals out of a little bit of a below-par performance, but that's as much down to the opponents as it is down to our team. So I'm grateful for the point, I think that it's a strong point, we were maybe a wee bit fortunate but to a man they have worked their socks off to get it.

" You get greedy and you want to win every game, we've got a super run behind us and we have got some tough games coming up. Including today there are three out of the next four away from home and away from where we have been at our strongest, so we have got to get things from those away matches. We'll get into next weekend, Saturday and Monday knowing that we have got two really tough fixtures again. We've got something behind us though and the rest of the week can be about getting their legs back ready and then we push on for another real thrust at the final part.

" I'm not sure we need to do a lot of training, these boys are going to get a break, they are going to get Monday off. It will be late when they get home tonight and you've seen the effort that they have been putting in in recent weeks. Even when we have been up against it and not at our best they've to a man, my substitutes, my travellers, everybody has really put everything in to try to push the club forward.

" I'm very, very proud of them in that sense as a group of players, they don't lack in effort and trying very hard for the shirt that they are wearing. For that degree they need a breather, mentally and physically, because the final thrust is coming now. We're right in the mix and that is great credit to the way that they go about their work these people. "



" He (Keiren Westwood) is in wonderful form isn't he at the moment and we hadn't defended his triple save as well as I would have liked. We got a little bit cut, (Anthony) McNamee was certainly giving us problems, and again, that's nothing against David Raven. Because he is a very good player and he was getting good service and giving David a tough afternoon, putting crosses in and people were getting into the box.

" Again though you saw not just Keiren, but defenders throwing themselves, blocking shots and staying with the game when things were against us. Keiren, quite rightly, when he came to the fore produced was it a triple save? I just saw a lot going in there and he finished up with it underneath him. The players to a man said well done Westy but he is very disappointed that we haven't won the game because he has done all that work for us, but that is a goalkeeper for you.

" They have been in the ascendancy really perhaps in the game, the most likely to get the first goal and it doesn't go your way. Then when you lose a goal like they did you are wondering if their heads will drop a bit but they didn't, fair play to them. We questioned at half-time if Swindon could play like that again, and they did, so we had to be as strong as we were.

" Again the set-play has been important, I'm disappointed with their second goal, it's too easy, Murph (Peter Murphy) has got bumped off it and a long ball down the middle, it's pretty soft for me. He's come back and redeemed himself though with a header off a set-play, we work at them and they have been invaluable to us recently to get results, and they have been again today.

" I'm relieved that we have got something from the game because I wasn't certain where the goals were going to come from in terms of our forward football. We've found a couple though, and I suppose in terms of effort, if we hadn't put the work in that we did then we wouldn't have stayed with the game. So I'm very, very pleased with the team, and they've come up against a team in good form today who have played well against us, so I've got to be happy going home with a point.

" The substitutions were just to freshen up the legs, I'm sure that if you had come to the game that it was cracking game of football and a good advert for the league. From my team's point of view though the last few games we have had to freshen it up in my eyes with fresh legs in the last part of the game and that's what we've done. "